The Lucky Ones
by Chibimono Akuno
Summary: Modern AU. Shipped from one foster home to the next, Zoro finally found a friend that cares for him. And as Luffy finally gains a loving home, neither wants to let go of the other. [budding ZoLu relationship]
1. Part the First

**Title:** The Lucky Ones (1/?)  
**Author:** Chibimono Akuno  
**Fandom:** One Piece  
**Pairing:** Zoro x Luffy, Shanks x Ben  
**Rating:** PG  
**Word Count:** 760  
**Warnings:** Foster-children situation. Highschool dropout. Gay relatives having custody of a minor. A budding romance between two male friends. If any of this bothers you, please don't read.  
**Disclaimers:** Not mine. Just pretending. I love Oda with all my heart.  
**A/N:** A modern-ish AU. This is unedited/unbeta'ed and was written over a span of time. None of the parts are written in the same exact style. If you see any glaring errors, feel free to point them out.

**The Lucky Ones**  
- Part One -  
_by Chibimono Akuno_

Luffy fumbled around in his frustration and finally just slid his text book off the coffee table in a heap, a growl rumbling in his throat.

"What do I even need Geometry for anyway?" he pouted with puffed cheeks. "It's not like I'll find a job where I'll be measuring triangles or circles."

"I don't know why they require it, but you can't do nothing about it," Zoro said from his bunk, not even looking up from his magazine.

"They have pi, you know?" Luffy piped up. "But you can't eat it. How can you have a pi you can't eat!?"

"Have you tasted your protractor, instead?" Zoro chuckled, idly flipping to the next glossy page.

Luffy snorted. "No way! It's not even edible."

Zoro laughed more, finally looking up to smile at his friend. "Just checking."

"So... what kinda grades did you get in Geometry?" Luffy asked, tapping his pencil on his makeshift desk of a coffee table.

"I failed it the first time," Zoro said, grabbing for a new magazine off his nightstand made of grey concrete blocks.

Luffy waited in anticipation to know what Zoro's grade the second time around was like, but Zoro was not supplying the tale. "And?" he finally asked over the long silence.

"And what?" Zoro looked up from an article of _Suzuki_'s newest model of motorcycle. He knew he'd never have the money for it, but it was nice to dream of something other than his beat up, little _Yamaha_.

"What about the second time you took Geometry?" Luffy asked, persistent for an answer. After all, his own grade was on the line and he needed a little help. He was nowhere near the greatest at anything math related.

"I was failing again, but I dropped out anyway," Zoro shrugged, before turning back to his glossy dreams of speed and engine roar.

Across the room, Luffy snorted and folded his arms over his chest. "Zoro is stupid."

Zoro sputtered in shock before growling at his friend. "Who the hell asked you anyway?!" he barked.

Nothing more was said between them for a while as Luffy fiddled with his homework. Finally, he slammed his text book shut and just leaned against the wall. His eyes fell on his friend as he gazed longingly over his periodicals.

"I didn't... I was never good at school," Zoro said quietly as the staring became more than he could stand. "I figured I'd be working crap jobs all my life anyway. I know I'm not smart. The only class I could ever get a decent grade in was Gym, and that was only if I wasn't beating the crap out of the other students for picking fights with me. School just... became a waste of time when I could... be working."

Shoving his magazines to the floor, Zoro rolled onto his back and looked up at the ceiling. He was becoming the loser his sister Kuina always said he would be. He could just hear the hum of all those pretty, sleek, new motorbikes racing away from him.

The bed dipped under Luffy's weight as he sat beside his friend. He looked at the images of shiny chrome, flashy paint-jobs, and leather seats scattered on the floor.

"I suck at Geometry, too. And you know... I'm not too bright, either," Luffy smiled as if that was something to be proud of. "But I'm gonna try to finish school. And then I'll try to get a good job. And when I make enough money..."

Picking a copy of _Cycle World_ from off the floor, Luffy flipped through it for a moment. He picked the rest of them up as well, and rolled them so they would fit in one of the openings in a cement block.

"When I make enough money, we'll get a neat little house. One that's funny shaped or something. And then we'll go get custom-made _Chopper_s or _Harley_s or something..."

"Luffy..." Zoro looked to his friend. After all the foster homes he had been tossed in and out of, this boy was the first he ever managed to get along with. Sometimes, it _hurt_ Zoro when Luffy showed just how much he cared.

Leaning back, Luffy used Zoro's stomach as a pillow. "Won't it be cool, Zoro? Just me and you? We'll work hard together and make it there. It'll be awesome."

Zoro just ruffled the boy's hair, unable to say the '_thank you_' he so wanted to say, for fear of his voice being choked by the lump in his throat.

_- to be concluded -  
_


	2. Part the Second

**Title:** The Lucky Ones (2/?)  
**Author:** Chibimono Akuno  
**Fandom:** One Piece  
**Pairing:** Zoro x Luffy, Shanks x Ben  
**Rating:** PG  
**Word Count:** 954  
**Warnings:** Foster-children situation. Highschool dropout. Gay relatives having custody of a minor. A budding romance between two male friends. If any of this bothers you, please don't read.  
**Disclaimers:** Not mine. Just pretending. I love Oda with all my heart.  
**A/N:** A modern-ish AU. This is unedited/unbeta'ed and was written over a span of time. None of the parts are written in the same exact style. If you see any glaring errors, feel free to point them out.

**The Lucky Ones**  
- Part Two -  
_by Chibimono Akuno_

Zoro made his way through the garage and shed his greasy work clothing in the laundry room. If he could get away with telling his manager to take the job and shove it, he'd never work with fried chicken again. But every penny counted now, and he couldn't just drop a job because he came home smelling like grease and gravy.

A quick visit to the kitchen found a mug of once hot tea that Makino had no doubt left for him. He put it in the microwave, just long enough rewarm it, and to let his foster mother know he was home.

At nineteen, he was free to leave and do whatever he wished. But out of the kindness of her heart, Makino allowed Zoro to stay after his eighteenth birthday. He had nowhere else to go and she couldn't just let him live out on the streets. As long as he was saved his money, bought what he needed, and helped her when he could, she let him stay without rent. Besides, Zoro worked three jobs and was only home to sleep or change clothes between them, and thus did not spend much time there.

Trudging up the stairs, Zoro stopped for a moment in front of his old bedroom. Sometimes, he wished he could still open the door and find Luffy in bed, yawning a groggy welcome home. Now, Usopp and Tony, Makino's new foster kids, slept in there and he'd taken a smaller room down the hall. A room by himself. A room with no Luffy.

It had taken a long time for Luffy's uncle to gain custody of him. Many thought he'd never get it, due to being gay. But in the end, Shanks was Luffy's only biological family member that was able to provide him with a stable living environment and Luffy was removed from the foster program and Makino's care.

At the time, Luffy was happy, because he liked his uncle and he'd actually be closer to where his older brother was living, as well. They were the only two, three if you included Shanks' boyfriend, that ever seemed to visit Luffy.

Luffy was one of the lucky ones. Though his mother and father did not care about him, he still had someone in his family that loved him. A dead mother, a worthless father rotting in jail, and a sister that used to beat him senseless before his father killed her... That was all Zoro had. He was glad to have left it behind, but that left him all alone, too.

Zoro was angry, bitter, and used to no one caring. And that's why it _hurt_ so much when Luffy showed that he did care. For two years, Luffy wiggled his way deep into Zoro's defenses and showed Zoro he didn't have to be alone anymore.

_"We'll get a neat little house of our own and some cool motorcycles... Won't it be cool, Zoro? Just me and you? We'll work hard together and make it there. It'll be awesome."_

At times, it was so strange to Zoro how Luffy could just put his friend before himself. Luffy was more worried about how Zoro would be with him than where he'd be going himself. There were so many times that Zoro had to remind the boy to do what he had to, and Zoro would do the same, and maybe they'd meet in the middle.

But all of that had to change when Luffy found it was time to leave. All their _we_'s and _us_' now had to become _I_'s and _me_'s, because Zoro couldn't come with him. The realization was devastating to them both, but Zoro never showed it.

He increased his work hours to keep away from home. He came home while Luffy slept and left before he woke, sometimes sleeping on the sofa so that Luffy would never know he had been home. On the day Luffy finally moved out, Zoro had started his third job. He came home exhausted that night and moved into Makino's spare room, taking Luffy's old bed and his coffee table-turned-desk with him.

Luffy's across town now, living in a very nice neighborhood with just about everything he could want. He calls Makino every day, wanting to know if Zoro was alive. Sometimes, he's lucky enough to call when Zoro's home changing for work, and he has a few minutes to hear his friend's voice. Luffy does all the talking, he always had, but that is fine to Zoro. He doesn't want Luffy to hear how miserable he sounds, anyway.

As Zoro stares at their old bedroom door for a few seconds, he remembers that it's been a few weeks since Luffy had caught him by phone. He wonders, for probably the twentith time that day, what Luffy has been doing lately. He continues along the hall to his room, mug of tea in hand, and hopes to collapse into an easy sleep once he hits his bed.

He flips the light switch on to find something on his bed. Paper. A report card.

Luffy's report card. With straight A's.

And a note.

_Hey Zoro!  
I came to see you, but you weren't home. You work too hard. Take a weekend off. Uncle Shanks and Uncle Ben want you to visit! We haven't seen you in forever! Please come visit? Please? I miss you.  
- Luffy  
P.S. - See! I'm working really hard, too! But you gotta stop working harder. I can't catch up!_

Zoro put his mug on his cementblock nightstand, unable to choke down anything past the lump in his throat. To have Makino's help and Luffy's care... Zoro knew he was one of the lucky ones.

_- to be concluded -  
_


	3. Part the Third

**Title:** The Lucky Ones (3/?)  
**Author:** Chibimono Akuno  
**Fandom:** One Piece  
**Pairing:** Zoro x Luffy, Shanks x Ben  
**Rating:** PG  
**Word Count:** 1,079  
**Warnings:** Foster-children situation. Highschool dropout. Gay relatives having custody of a minor. A budding romance between two male friends. If any of this bothers you, please don't read.  
**Disclaimers:** Not mine. Just pretending. I love Oda with all my heart.  
**A/N:** A modern-ish AU. This is unedited/unbeta'ed and was written over a span of time. None of the parts are written in the same exact style. If you see any glaring errors, feel free to point them out.

**The Lucky Ones**  
- Part Three -  
_by Chibimono Akuno_

Zoro had worked with many gay men through his many different jobs. However, he never had many chances to see the way they behaved around their significant others. And while Zoro has known Shanks and Ben for near to three years now, he had never really seen them... well... _act gay_, for lack of a better way to put it.

Sure, Zoro had known many guys that were rather flamboyant and quite fine with the rest of the world knowing their preferences. Then, there were the other guys that you never even knew were the slightest bit gay, until you caught them behind a dumpster, in a company van, or in a bathroom stall with another man.

When it came down to it, Shanks and Ben were the other guys. Shanks was one of three head supervisors for a construction company known as Tom's Workers. He could drink and get rowdy with the rest of them, was calm and seemingly carefree, and was the best person to go to for a good laugh. He was smart, too, and could get his whole crew motivated like no one else. Between Shanks, Cutty Flam, and Iceburg, Tom could almost sit back and let the company run itself.

And while Shanks was the happy-go-lucky type, it was Ben that was the rock. He was quiet and strong, a serious thinker. An owner of three automotive and autobody shops, Ben was good at holding things together and seeing that things were done properly.

They had plenty of money to throw around, though they never flaunted it. They had a beautiful home of four bedrooms and a very well-kept yard. As Zoro sat in the driveway with his shabby little motorbike and well-worn clothing, he felt very out of place.

The moment the front door opened, however, Zoro felt very much at home. Shanks welcomed him like a good friend, with a hug and a pat on the back. Ben took his small knapsack and offered to serve up lunch if Zoro was hungry. The boy did not even have a moment to answer before a body came flying at him, having vaulted from the railing halfway down the stairs.

"ZORO!"

Shanks laughed as Zoro landed in a heap on the floor with a pile of Luffy on top.

"ZORO! It's been forever!" And when Luffy began running off at the mouth, like he had to catch up on whole years instead of just a few months, Zoro wasn't so sure he had ever been this happy before.

Zoro had never really seen men that were... _touchy-feely_, he guessed he would say. Unless you counted sports and the endless butt-smacking, but that's a jock thing, apparently. Maybe he just never paid attention to it before, but he was truly beginning to see it now. Simple gestures, like a pat on the shoulder, a hand on the lower back, a hand on a knee. Zoro thought it was odd that he found Shanks and Ben's little shows of affection to be interesting instead of uncomfortable. In a way, he could see that was where Luffy had learned much of his huggy, shoulder-hanging, rib-poking, tickle-loving ways.

The physical contact was like a way to show what words were wasted on. It was an affectionate way to let someone know that the other was there, right there, for them.

Zoro turned to his friend, watching bright eyes turn to him in response. A huge smile broke out on Luffy's face before he grabbed for Zoro's hand and pulled him off the sofa.

"Let's play video games!"

Luffy's room was big for just him. He had his own queen sized bed, an actual desk, a sofa of his own, and an entertainment center for a fairly big television, stereo, and several game systems. He even had satelite connection and a massive collection of DVDs at his disposal.

"Eight hundred channels and nothing is on," Luffy sighed as he sat down and switched on a game consol. "Except for _Myth Busters_. That show is so cool. They blow up stuff."

Three different fighting games and countless rounds of button-mashing, elbowing, sword-clashing, laughing, mecha-bashing, insult-flinging, boxing, foot-nudging, car-crashing, tickle-fighting battles, Luffy and Zoro chased each other to the kitchen for dinner. Light shin-kicking continued under the table until Shanks asked Ben if they could play footsie, too. Zoro and Luffy both found their plates to be more interesting for the rest of the meal.

Though they still got in three more kicks between the two of them.

After dinner, the boys returned to Luffy's room. The evening began with them lounging on the sofa, the television playing some odd music channel just to have something in the background. They talked, really talked, about what their worlds had become since they parted.

Zoro complained about his work, and how he wished he could just find one job that could make him enough money to support him and a small apartment. Luffy thought the world had slowed to a halt, and that nothing would ever move again in between the time he left Makino's home till the moment Zoro pulled in the driveway. Zoro slaved through work, couldn't sleep, hated fast food, and sometimes felt like he had nothing to live for when Luffy went away.

The night wore on surprisingly fast, and they laid back on Luffy's bed as they kept talking.

Luffy was bored without his best friend. Zoro couldn't remember the last time he saw a movie. Luffy wanted to go to the circus when it was in town. Zoro thought girls were a waste of time. Luffy wanted to learn to cook like Uncle Shanks and Uncle Ben. Zoro wished for that neat little house. Luffy wanted to give him that custom bike. Zoro was going to keep their promise of just them. Luffy missed Zoro. Zoro missed Luffy.

Somewhere along the line, they had both fallen asleep in Luffy's bed. Zoro did not know how they had been tucked in, but he guessed Luffy's bed was big enough for the two of them.

Zoro woke little later on in the night to the feeling of a warm body snuggled against him, and as he drifted back to sleep, he wondered what it would be like to be gay, if only to return the affectionate contact that Luffy loved so much.

_- to be concluded -  
_


	4. Part the Fourth

**Title:** The Lucky Ones (4/?)  
**Author:** Chibimono Akuno  
**Fandom:** One Piece  
**Pairing:** Zoro x Luffy, Shanks x Ben  
**Rating:** PG  
**Word Count:** 311  
**Warnings:** Foster-children situation. Highschool dropout. Gay relatives having custody of a minor. A budding romance between two male friends. If any of this bothers you, please don't read.  
**Disclaimers:** Not mine. Just pretending. I love Oda with all my heart.  
**A/N:** A modern-ish AU. This is unedited/unbeta'ed and was written over a span of time. None of the parts are written in the same exact style. If you see any glaring errors, feel free to point them out.

**The Lucky Ones**  
- Part Four -  
_by Chibimono Akuno_

Zoro had to blink a few times and think hard just to remember where he was. He then thought of where he needed to be and made to move, but found he was thoroughly pinned down by warm deadweight.

"Hey... gotta go..."

An arm tightened around Zoro's waist. "Nmmm... Zoro stays..."

Zoro rubbed gently at Luffy's back. "... move?"

"Ngnnn..." If Luffy could move any closer...

"But I gotta pee..."

It took a moment, but Luffy finally shuffled away from Zoro long enough for him to get up, and then curled right up in Zoro's warm, vacant spot.

Zoro's return trip from the bathroom found him lost as to which room was his friend's. He had found the spare room where his knapsack was stored. Apparently, that was the room he should have been sleeping in.

Luffy's bed, on the other hand... That was warm. And even with Luffy's constant move to be against him, it was comfortable. Zoro wondered if that's why people slept with other people; because of the warmth and feeling of ease.

After an odd debate with himself over propriety and comfort, Zoro shut the door to the spare room and tried another, luckily finding Luffy's room. He climbed into Luffy's abandoned side of the bed and laid with his back to his friend.

No sooner than he had settled, Luffy had rolled into the spot against Zoro's back, curling against him for his heat. Zoro was still for a moment before attempting to turn on his back. Luffy shuffled away, only to wiggle his way to Zoro when he stopped moving. Easing his arm around Luffy's shoulder, he resigned to his fate of being a human pillow.

As Luffy eased out a sleepy sigh of contentment, Zoro wondered why the boy had never wandered his way to Zoro's bed across the room they shared at Makino's house.

_- to be concluded -  
_


	5. Part the Fifth

**Title:** The Lucky Ones (5/?)  
**Author:** Chibimono Akuno  
**Fandom:** One Piece  
**Pairing:** Zoro x Luffy, Shanks x Ben  
**Rating:** PG  
**Word Count:** 298  
**Warnings:** Foster-children situation. High school dropout. Gay relatives having custody of a minor. A budding romance between two male friends. If any of this bothers you, please don't read.  
**Disclaimers:** Not mine. Just pretending. I love Oda with all my heart.  
**A/N:** A modern-ish AU. This is unedited/unbeta'ed and was written over a span of time. None of the parts are written in the same exact style. If you see any glaring errors, feel free to point them out.

**The Lucky Ones**  
- Part Five -  
_by Chibimono Akuno_

After the weekend with Luffy and his uncles, the hardest thing Zoro found he could ever do was leave. For just a little while, he was able to hold again the happiness that his only friend ever provided for him, and pretend that, for once, he was actually a part of a family. He was never alone in Shanks' and Ben's house, even in the few moments he spent by himself. They let him realize that he was still young and still had time to grow after he had let himself age too fast.

"You're not nineteen going on thirty, Zoro," Shanks had smiled as he put a hand on the young man's shoulder. "Live moves fast enough. There is no need to rush."

But leaving from Luffy's home meant returning to the daily grind and the three jobs that were part of that reality. And he did not want to go.

Dark, innocent puppy-eyes made it all the worse.

"Now that you know where we are, you'll come back, right?"

"Yeah, of course."

"Next weekend?"

"Well-"

"Please?"

"Luffy, you're pressing your luck," Ben admonished with a chuckle.

The boy just puffed his cheeks in a pout before continuing on. "Please, Zoro?"

How could he say now? Given a tight friendship and a place to escape to when reality was just a little too much...

"Is it alright?" Zoro just hoped he did not sound too eager.

Shanks smiled. " You're welcome to call this place home whenever you feel like it."

Suddenly, Zoro's weekend job just did not seem so important anymore. He'd quit it when he got home. His other dreams could just wait a little longer, as long as he could hold onto this one more often.

"I guess I'll see you next weekend, Luffy."

_ - to be concluded -  
_


End file.
